How to Build Higher Quality Content Using E-E-A-T
LondonSEO XL speaker guest post: Nathan Dugal
This blog post is a summary of my talk at LondonSEO XL in June 2024.
What is E-E-A-T?
First things first, what does E-E-A-T stand for? E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Google’s Quality Raters use these elements to determine whether results on Google are returning high-quality & trustworthy pages.
Let’s break down each component:
- Experience: Does the content creator have real-world, first-hand experience on the topic?
- Expertise: Does the content creator/contributors have the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic?
- Authoritativeness: Is the business an authority on the topic? Are they the go-to?
- Trustworthiness: Does the content come from a reliable source that users can trust?
Below is a visual representation of how E-E-A-T comes together.
Trust is the centrepiece of E-E-A-T. If content creators are providing signals of experience, expertise and authoritativeness through their content & website, then we know that users are much more likely to trust that content creator/website with the information they’re providing.
Google have told us time and time again that E-E-A-T matters most for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) based queries.
What is YMYL? YMYL is a term from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. The definition reads as follows…
“Certain types of pages that can potentially impact a user’s happiness, health, financial stability or future security”
It’s helpful to think about YMYL as a scale, rather than it having a clear defining line. To put that into context:
- How often to wash jeans – Pretty low on the scale, not really YMYL.
- How often to replace toothbrush – Might be somewhere in the middle – this is something which can impact dental hygiene.
- When to go to A&E with a headache – At the top end of the scale. This is information that you want to be getting from a trusted source, you should only see trusted authorities ranking for this term, like the NHS, for example.
On top of that, it’s important to note, that the level of experience, expertise & authoritativeness needed will vary from query to query. For example, If you were searched for ‘how to fall asleep fast’ & you landed on the article pictured below, you can see from the title, that they’re going to recommend 5 tested strategies. Therefore, you can probably guess, that experience is going to be your most important factor here, you’ll want to read these from someone who has tested them.
On the other hand, If you want to know what the side effects of omeprazole are, it’s likely the most important factor for the article/website that gives that information would be expertise & authority. Experience is less important in this scenario.
Then, for some types of queries, demonstrating expertise, experience & authority can all be important. For example, if you’re looking for the ‘best graphics card for gaming’, you’d ideally want the information from a writer who’s tested the graphics cards. After all, it’s a specialist subject, so they would need a certain level of expertise. Also, you’d likely want the information from a website/brand that’s an authority in that industry.
Ok, so we know what E-E-A-T is…
But, why is it important?
Why is E-E-A-T important for SEO?
Earlier I mentioned that E-E-A-T is what Quality Raters use to assess Google’s results & this is essentially what this quote from Google tells us…
“These guidelines are what are used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems, and they don’t directly influence ranking.”
Within that quote, Google themselves essentially tell us that E-E-A-T guidelines ‘don’t directly influence ranking’. So why, as marketers & content creators, should we care about it?
As mentioned, Google says E-E-A-T is ‘used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems’.
My takeaway from this is – Google’s goal is to improve their algorithms to measure signals that correlate with websites which display a high level of E-E-A-T. Therefore, If you don’t trust a website, it’s unlikely Google’s algorithm will. We can see this across many of the algorithm updates over the past few years, where we’ve consistently seen websites displaying high levels of E-E-A-T coming out as winners.
For example, in the health sector, we’re seeing a clear rise in visibility for the true authorities.
Another example is where there’s a clear shift where Google might have favoured generalists previously, to now favouring authorities within that sector.
Let’s look at Trusted Reviews as a use case, they’re a generalist review site & while they still hold rankings for certain queries where they might be considered more of an authority.
They’ve seen a clear drop off in areas such as tech, where they’re unlikely to be seen as more of authority in such a specialist subject area, than industry-based sites. As you can see below looking at the keyword ‘pixel 7 pro review’, they’ve dropped from position 1st to 24th in 2 years.
When we look at the SERP now, we can see the winners are those industry authorities…
We now know what E-E-A-T is.
We know why it’s important.
But, what next? How do we apply this on a practical level?
Implementing E-E-A-T in Your Content Strategy
To make it clear, E-E-A-T is not an overnight success or a quick fix. However, Using E-E-A-T as a guide to building out informative & trustworthy content for users is a surefire way to build valuable traffic & futureproof a site. I’m going to give you some tips outside of the obvious ‘use a writer with expertise’ to help you build higher quality, trustworthy content for users.
Use your community/customers for user-generated content
A big one for me, which I think is underutilised by a lot of brands is to use your community/customers for user-generated content. This ties into the experience element of E-E-A-T.
Many of us will know the story of popular forums & their surge in visibility. Everyone has their own opinion around this, I’m sure, but the bottom line is Google is favouring user-generated content for certain queries.
But, why is this relevant?
Because this type of content gives a clear signal of utilising users with experience throughout content.
For me, one of the best examples of a site utilising UGC to add value for users is Rotten Tomatoes. The majority of the value is added through UGC, with audience & critic reviews. They also do a great job of making it clear which reviews are from users with expertise, for example, by highlighting which reviews are from actual critics.
Mumsnet is a great example of taking quotes from real-life users and using them to add more value to the content they’re writing. For example, in the article here – Advice for new parents, you’d expect experience is probably important, so they add quotes from real users with experience around each point to add value. While adding in the link to the comment on the forum for transparency.
Leverage internal & external experts to contribute to the content
One thing we can do to get across the expertise within the business as a whole is to leverage internal experts to contribute to our content.
Take the content pictured below that we put together with a client of ours, GoHenry. This is a great example of how to leverage quotes from internal experts to build more trust around the topics of discussion.
Importantly, how do users know to trust these experts? Well, that’s where the online footprint comes in…
This is where Digital PR can come in and be your best friend, building the online footprints of those internal experts. Below are the perfect examples from the Blue Array Digital PR team. Using quotes from those internal experts, so they’re featured in authoritative, relevant publications.
As well as internal experts, those externally with expertise can add a huge amount of value to your content. Use external experts to plug the gaps of the lack of expertise internally – this is something we leveraged in our content with GoHenry – with quotes from a parenting expert with an online footprint.
When you’re planning your content, my tip would be to build up that bank of quotes from internal experts on topics you know you’ll write about.
Use schema to give Google a helping hand
Often the missing piece of the puzzle that a lot of websites miss is using schema to give Google a helping hand. Let’s look at an example of this in action. Nerdwallet uses an author with expertise for their S&P 500 article. 
We can see this author has an online footprint.
But to be super clear with the signals to Google, they use schema markup to provide info on the author.
Leverage unique data to be the primary source of info
Again, something that’s underutilised in my opinion is leveraging unique data, such as customer data to be the primary source of information.
For context, if a user lands on the pictured articles below by GoHenry & can see them referencing their own studies & customer data, then GoHenry are more likely to see them as an authority on these topics.
Build out ‘linkable’ resources
If done well, ‘linkable’ resources are an efficient way of driving high-quality, relevant links into a site. High-quality mentions & backlinks from other authoritative relevant sources are still a huge part of being seen as an authority.
This could come in the form of reports where you leverage internal data, where they become the primary source of information, therefore sites are more likely to link to it.
But it doesn’t have to be solely internal data, as long as you’re offering something unique – take the RAC’s Report on Motoring for example. They’re providing unique data on UK driver opinions. Again, this will be the primary source of this data, making it a linkable asset.
Build out in-depth content hubs
Perhaps one of the biggest things you can do to convey authority around a topic is to build out in-depth content hubs.
You want a user to be able to get all the info they need around a topic, from your website, rather than competitors.
It’s important to make sure you understand your audience, don’t just ‘do’ keyword research: Understand what they’re discussing, identify their pain points and create content that meets their needs.
Your competitors will have access to the same keyword research tools, don’t just follow the crowd and produce similar content. Produce something unique that resonates with your target audience.
Then use internal linking strategically to build out an Information Architecture, which conveys that authority. Make relevant content easy for users & search engines to find!
Don’t stray from your areas of experience & expertise
Finally, don’t stray far from your areas of experience & expertise. How can you build authority around a topic if it’s just completely left-field from your areas of expertise or experience?
I’ll show you a quick example of how this looks in practice…
With GoHenry, we worked with them to take a product-led approach to building out informational content around the features of the product. Logically, this is where we needed to show our authority.
So we built out hubs of content based around some of the following areas, such as pocket money, chores, financial education for kids & debit cards for kids.
Using this approach with a focus on using elements of EEAT to build out higher-quality content, led to organic visibility peaking above competitors, to record levels.
Remember how this all ties together…
Trust is the centrepiece of EEAT. Conveying experience, expertise & authority throughout your website leads to helping a brand to become a trusted source of information.
In the end, it all just comes down to users.
The last paragraph of this tweet from Google sums it up perfectly…
Forget about just adding elements of E-E-A-T without actually focusing on improving content. That isn’t going to cut it.
Also, I think Marie Haynes is spot on with this point…
“E-E-A-T is so much more than a ranking factor – it’s a measure of legitimacy”
Source: https://www.mariehaynes.com/resources/eat/
To summarise these tips
- Utilise UGC from your community/customers
- Leverage internal & external expertise
- Utilise schema to give Google a hand
- Be the primary source of info & data
- Build out ‘linkable’ resources
- Produce content in in-depth hubs
- Don’t stray from your areas of experience & expertise